[ForceFed70]

Hi All, Newbie here.

I'm looking for ideas for food that I can store that has a very long shelf life. At least 5 years.

My plan is to set asside a corner of my garage and spend a couple of weekends gathering about 5-6 large storage boxes woth of supplies. I want to be able to put everything together and "forget about it" for 5 years or more. I will not be rotating foods in/out, etc.

I'm looking for reccomendations for food that will last a minimum of 5 years under such conditions. I plan to pack in mylar with O2 absorbers. I don't need to eat well, but my goal is to store enough for my family to survive 90days or more.

EDIT: List has been updated with suggestions from SB members

Cool dry storage with 5+ year shelf life
- Rice
- Pasta
- Sugar
- Salt
- Baking soda
- Canned fruits + tomatoes
- Canned meat - Tuna, Ham, SPAM, etc (5 years will be pushing it)
- Canned entrees - Chili, Ravoli, Soup, etc (5 years will be pushing it)
- Flour and/or whole wheat berries
- Oats
- Cornmeal
- Assortment of Spices, Pepper, etc
- Dried beans of some sort
- Powdered Milk
- Powdered Eggs
- split peas
- vinegar
- dried potato slices
- Pilot bread
- Dehydrated vegtables (max 3% moisture content)

Deep Freeze Storage with 5+ year shelf life:
- Vegtable oil
- Yeast

Luxary Items with 5+ year shelf life (cool dry storage):
- coffee
- tea
- honey


Can you reccomend anything else? Thanks!

 

[IceDemon]

How about Honey

 

[felicia]

Add;
split peas
dried spices
coffee
tea
whole wheat berries (to grind into fresh flour)
yeast
vinegar
oil
salt
pepper
dried potato slices

Consider adding a canner & canning jars & canning lids & a dehydrator so you can purchase fresh in bulk & preserve yourself. Of you can grow and preserve yourself.

 

[ForceFed70]

Add;
split peas
dried spices
coffee
tea
whole wheat berries (to grind into fresh flour)
yeast
vinegar
oil
salt
pepper
dried potato slices

Consider adding a canner & canning jars & canning lids & a dehydrator so you can purchase fresh in bulk & preserve yourself. Of you can grow and preserve yourself.

Thanks for the reccomendations! I will be adding a few of your reccomendations for sure.

-Salt and spices are already on my list.
-My understanding is that you can't keep oils longer than 2 years Max.
-I had assumed that yeast and vinegar would not keep for 5+ years, I will research them and will include if it looks like they'll keep.

 

[ForceFed70]

How about Honey

Great suggestion thank-you.

 

[wadoman]

you should add any good suggested items in an update on your first post so if this thread gets long we don't have to sift through each page. Just a thought.

 

[penny'sdad]

Thanks for the reccomendations! I will be adding a few of your reccomendations for sure.

-Salt and spices are already on my list.
-My understanding is that you can't keep oils longer than 2 years Max.
-I had assumed that yeast and vinegar would not keep for 5+ years, I will research them and will include if it looks like they'll keep.

You can cheat on the oils if you have spare room in a freezer. I have several gallons of olvie oil in the deep freeze. They won't have any chance to turn rancid until one or two years after they thaw out. I rotate these jugn into what I cook with, so they aren't in there for much over a year or so.

 

[felicia]

Thanks for the reccomendations! I will be adding a few of your reccomendations for sure.

-Salt and spices are already on my list.
-My understanding is that you can't keep oils longer than 2 years Max.
-I had assumed that yeast and vinegar would not keep for 5+ years, I will research them and will include if it looks like they'll keep.

Vinegar will be ok.

Yeast, just place in the freezer. If after opened and it starts to work (Not so good) use it to make a sourdough starter.

Oil, yes it will only be good for 2 or so years but you need fats in your diet. You can use Olive Oil that is not longer good to cook with for light. Look at the link below item 1 & 2. (item one singular, item two bulk). I have some of these to use with canning jars to make oil lamps.
http://www.oillampman.com/burners/all_other_plated.htm

 

[Scoutmaster316]

Sailor Boy Pilot Bread. For some reason, we can't buy it in the box, but we can buy it in the bulk food section of our local Winco.

It'll pretty much keep forever.

 

[goose3]

SPAM. Indefinite shelf life.

 

[mds03197]

Check out this link (scroll down about half way on the page):

http://survivalacres.com/information/shelflife.html

You may have already seen this but it helped me out a lot.

 

[BoycottTheDay]

How about Honey

Im more refined so i like sugar :

 

[pinstripe]

Try velveeta. I opened a box just the other night that had expired in 2009 and tasted just the same. Was kept in an air conditioned home. Powdered buttermilk buscuit mix, powdered pancake mix, and TVP from augason farms.

 

[MikeK]

Thanks for the reccomendations! I will be adding a few of your reccomendations for sure.

-Salt and spices are already on my list.
-My understanding is that you can't keep oils longer than 2 years Max.
-I had assumed that yeast and vinegar would not keep for 5+ years, I will research them and will include if it looks like they'll keep.

A newbie that does their research. I like you already! :thumb:

Coconut oil lasts a lot better than most.

Vinegar will last for years without a problem.

If you get the Saf brand yeast from Sam's, it's vacuum packed in foil. It'll last a couple years easy. But you can keep it frozen almost indefinately, and still have at least a couple years safe zone when you remove it. Plus, if it starts to get weak, you can always proof a culture and keep feeding it, thus keeping it alive.

You can do this trick with the coconut oil too, if you have room in the freezer. But since oil is so bulky, few of us have enough room for it.

 

[Scoutmaster316]

Lots and lots of bulk salt. It's dirt cheap. I laid in a serious supply for curing meat and hides, and trading for others that do the same.

 

[ForceFed70]

you should add any good suggested items in an update on your first post so if this thread gets long we don't have to sift through each page. Just a thought.

Good idea. I will do just that!

 

[prankster]

The following are considered to be shelf stable:
Green Giant-vegeblend,niblets,white corn,mexicorn,cut green beans.

DelMonte cans.

Hormel-Spam,Chili,Stagg Chili,Dinty Moore

Nalley Products

Bushs' Baked Beans

ConAgra Foods-Chef Boyardee
Also-check out ZombieTactics on youtube-he has a series called Food Prep for the Lazy Late and Cheap. The #10 in the series explains how to make Knorrs Sides last a long time! Good Luck!

 

[ForceFed70]

Thanks for the suggestions everyone.

I've added most to the list (see original post) and broken the list in to a few different sections.

We do have a deep freeze and I think the wife will let me get away with keeping a medium sized box of food preps in the bottom.

 

[merlinfire]

Lots and lots of bulk salt. It's dirt cheap. I laid in a serious supply for curing meat and hides, and trading for others that do the same.

Cheap and easy. Will be one of the #1 trade commodities in a long-term SHTF. We don't worry about it much now because there's already salt pre-added to virtually any food you can buy. But when you are getting food raw from the wild or the garden, and working hard outdoors, sweating all that salt out.....you're going to need it to live. And you're going to need it to keep food from spoiling, and that can make the difference between being full or going hungry, or between being hungry and being dead.

 

[Monique]

Like Felicia said, learn to can if at all feasible for your situation. I can meat, especially those boneless skinless chicken thighs, beef stew meat, and boneless pork. Tastes far better than canned meat from the store, has no "mystery ingredients" and a little goes a long way (a pint=a pound, which is plenty for a pot of soup or chili).